New York Times \'Best Art Books\' 2020 \'Essential\' - Sunday Times \'Brilliantly enraged\' - New York Review of Books \'A real game-changer\'- Economist Walk into any Western museum today and you will see the curated spoils of Empire.
Since its first publication, museums across the western world have begun to return their Bronzes to Nigeria, heralding a new era in the way we understand the objects of empire we once took for granted..
The Brutish Museums sits at the heart of a heated debate about Cultural restitution, repatriation and the decolonisation of museums.
Pillaged during a British naval attack in 1897, the loot was passed on to Queen Victoria, the British Museum and countless private collections.
Few artefacts embody this history of rapacious and extractive colonialism better than the Benin Bronzes - a collection of thousands of metal plaques and sculptures depicting the history of the Royal Court of the Obas of Benin City, Nigeria.
They do not mention that the objects are all stolen.
Accompanying pieces of card offer a name, date and place of origin.
They sit behind plate glass: dignified, tastefully lit.
New York Times \'Best Art Books\' 2020 \'Essential\' - Sunday Times \'Brilliantly enraged\' - New York Review of Books \'A real game-changer\'- Economist Walk into any Western museum today and you will see the curated spoils of Empire
